Chitpavan


The Chitpavan Brahmin or Konkanastha Brahmin is a Hindu Maharashtrian Brahmin community inhabiting Konkan, the coastal region of the state of Maharashtra in India. The community came into prominence during the 18th century when the heirs of Peshwa from the Bhat family of Balaji Vishwanath became the de facto rulers of the Maratha empire. Under the British Raj, they were the one of the Hindu communities in Maharashtra to flock to western education and they provided the bulk of social reformers, educationalists and nationalists of the late 19th century. Until the 18th century, the Chitpavans were held in low esteem by the Deshastha, the older established Brahmin community of Maharashtra region.
The upper castes, that is, Marathi Brahmins, Prabhus and Saraswat Brahmins were only about 4% of the population in Maharashtra. A majority of this 4% were Brahmins. As per the 1901 census, about 5% of the Pune population was Brahmin and about 27% of them were Chitpawans.

Origin

The Chitpavan are also known as Konkanastha Brahmin. They have two common mythological stories of origin, of which the more contemporary story is based on the etymology of their name, meaning "pure of mind", while an older belief uses the alternate etymological meaning : "pure from the pyre" and is based on the tale of Parashurama in the Sahyadrikhanda of the Skanda Purana.
The Parashurama mythological story of shipwrecked people is similar to the mythological story of the Bene Israel Jews of Raigad district. The Bene Israel claim that Chitpavans are also of Jewish origin. In addition, Indian scholar Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar has shown similarity between names of Chitpawans and the geographical sites in Palestine.
The Konkan region witnessed the immigration of groups, such as the Bene Israel, and Kudaldeshkars. Each of these settled in distinct parts of the region and there was little mingling between them. The Chitpavans were apparently the last major community to arrive there and consequently the area in which they settled, around Ratnagiri, was the least fertile and had few good ports for trading. The other groups generally took up trade as their primary occupation. In ancient times, the Chitpawans were employed as messengers and spies. Later, with the rise of the Chitpawan Peshwa in the 18th century they began migrating to Pune and found employment as military men, diplomats and clerks in the administration. A 1763-4 document shows that at least 67% of the clerks at the time were Chitpawans.

History

Rise during the Maratha rule

Very little is known of the Chitpavans before 1707 A.D. Around this time, Balaji Vishwanth Bhat, a Chitpavan arrived from Ratnagiri to the Pune-Satara area. He was brought there on the basis of his reputation of being an efficient administrator. He quickly gained the attention of Chhatrapati Shahu. Balaji's work so pleased the Chhatrapati that he was appointed the Peshwa or Prime Minister in 1713. He ran a well-organized administration and, by the time of his death in 1720, he had laid the groundwork for the expansion of the Maratha Empire. Since this time until the fall of the Maratha Empire, the seat of the Peshwa would be held by the members of the Bhat family.
With the ascension of Balaji Baji Rao and his family to the supreme authority of the Maratha Empire, Chitpavan immigrants began arriving en masse from the Konkan to Pune where the Peshwa offered all important offices to his fellow castemen. The Chitpavan kin were rewarded with tax relief and grants of land. Historians cite nepotism and corruption as causes of the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818. Richard Maxwell Eaton states that this rise of the Chitpavans is a classic example of social rank rising with political fortune.

Role in Indian politics

After the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, the Chitpavans lost their political dominance to the British. The British would not subsidise the Chitpavans on the same scale that their caste-fellow, the Peshwas, had done in the past. Pay and power was now significantly reduced. Poorer Chitpavan students adapted and started learning English because of better opportunities in the British administration.
Some of the prominent figures in the Hindu reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries came from the Chitpavan Brahmin community. These included Dhondo Keshav Karve, Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, Vinoba Bhave.
Some of the strongest resistance to change came from the very same community. The vanguard and the old guard clashed many times. D. K. Karve was ostracised. Even Tilak offered penance for breaking caste or religious rules. One was for taking tea at Poona Christian mission in 1892 and the second was going to England in 1919.
The Chitpavan community includes two major politicians in the Gandhian tradition: Gopal Krishna Gokhale, whom Gandhi acknowledged as a preceptor, and Vinoba Bhave, one of his outstanding disciples. Gandhi describes Bhave as the "jewel of his disciples", and recognised Gokhale as his political guru. However, strong opposition to Gandhi came from the Chitpavan community. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the founder of the Hindu nationalist political ideology Hindutva, was a Chitpavan Brahmin and several other Chitpavans were among the first to embrace it because they thought it was a logical extension of the legacy of the Peshwas and caste-fellow Tilak. These Chitpavans felt out of place with the Indian social reform movement of Phule and the mass politics of Gandhi. Large numbers of the community looked to Savarkar, the Hindu Mahasabha and finally the RSS., drew their inspiration from fringe groups in this reactionary trend.

Anti-Brahmin violence in the 20th century after Gandhi's assassination

After Gandhi's assassination by Nathuram Godse, a Chitpawan, Brahmins in Maharashtra, became targets of violence, mostly by members from the Maratha caste. The motivating factor for the violence was not love for Gandhi on the part of the rioters but the denigration and humiliation that the Marathas were subjected to due to their caste status.
In the Patwardhan princely states such as Sangli, the Marathas were joined by the Jains and the Lingayats in the attacks against the Brahmins. Here, specifically, advanced factories owned by the Chitpawans were destroyed. This event led to the hasty integration of the Patwardhan states into the Bombay Province by March 1948 - a move that was opposed by other Brahmins as they feared the Maratha predominance in the integrated province. During the early 20th century, the ruler of Kolhapur state, Shahu and Bal Gangadhar Tilak fell out with each other due to vedokta controversy. He was also instrumental in shaping anti-Brahmin attitude in the non-Brahmin communities during that period. This led to great violence against Brahmins in Kolhapur.

Military

The Chitpavans have considered themselves to be both warriors and priests. Their involvement in military affairs began with the rise of the Peshwas and their willingness to enter military and other services earned them high status and power in the Deccan.

Culture

Traditionally, the Chitpavan Brahmins were a community of astrologers and priests who offer religious services to other communities. The 20th century descriptions of the Chitpavans list inordinate frugality, impassive, hard work, cleanliness and intelligence among their attributes. In their original home of Konkan, their primary occupation was farming and some earned money by performing rituals among their own caste members. During the heyday of the Maratha Empire, the city of Pune became the financial metropolis of the empire with 150 big and petty moneylenders. Most of these were Chitpavan or Deshastha Brahmins.
D.L.Sheth, the former director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in India, lists Indian communities that were traditionally "urban and professional" immediately after Independence in 1947. This list included Chitpawans and CKPs from Maharashtra; the South Indian Brahmins; the Nagar Brahmins from Gujarat; the Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and Kayasthas from northern India; the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis; the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. According to P.K.Verma, "Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school.

Language

Most of the Chitpavan Brahmins in Maharashtra have adopted Marathi as their language. A minority spoke a dialect of Konkani called Chitpavani Konkani in their homes. Even at that time, reports recorded Chitpavani as a fast-disappearing language. But in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka, it is spoken in places like Durga and Maala of Karkala taluk and Shishila and Mundaje of Belthangady Taluk.
The Marathi spoken by Chitpavans in Pune is the standard form of language used all over Maharashtra today. This form has many words derived from Sanskrit and retains the Sanskrit pronunciation of many, misconstrued by non-standard speakers as "nasalised pronunciation".

Social status

Earlier, the Deshastha Brahmins believed that they were the highest of all Brahmins and looked down upon the Chitpavans as parvenus, barely equal to the noblest of dvijas. The Deshastha Brahmins and the Karhadas treated the Peshwa's caste with contempt and refused to interdine with them. Even during the days of earlier Peshwa's they hesitated the admit the Chitpavans to social equality. Even the Peshwa was denied the rights to use the ghats reserved for Deshastha priests at Nashik on the Godavari river.
The rise in prominence of the Chitpavans compared to the Deshastha Brahmins resulted in intense rivalry between the two communities. 19th century records also mention Gramanyas or village-level debates between the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus and the Chitpavans, Saraswat Brahmins and the Chitpavans, Pathare Prabhus and the Chitpavans and Shukla Yujurvedi Deshastha Brahmins and the Chitpavans. These were quite common in Maharashtra.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak believed that the Deshasthas, Chitpawans and Karhades should get united. As early as 1881, he encouraged this by writing comprehensive discussions on the urgent need for these three Maharashtrian Brahmin sub-castes to give up caste exclusiveness by intermarrying and dining together.

Diet

Traditionally, Chitpavan Brahmins are vegetarian. Rice is their staple food.

Notable people